U.S. U-17’s drop first two matches at Nordic Tournament

The U.S. U-17 National Team has had a rough go at the Open Nordic Tournament thus far.

Manager Richie William’s squad dropped its second match in as many days, losing 4-1 to Norway Tuesday after being shutout by Denmark 2-0 the day before.

Norway struck early, tallying goals in the 8th and 20th minute respectively. The U.S. did well to respond with a goal of their own from forward Elijah Rice moments before the halftime whistle, but it would be the last celebration for the U-17 USMNT.

The Norwegians scored two second-half goals over a 20 minute span to distance themselves from the U.S. before the final whistle blew in a 4-1 defeat for the U.S. side.

Monday’s match against Denmark featured a similar narrative, at least in the first half, as the U.S. conceded two first-half goals in a 2-0 result for the Danish.

The half-strength U.S. squad will play its final group stage match on Thursday against the Faroe Islands before playing in either the 5th/6th or 7th/8th consolation match.

The other half of the split U-17’s will participate in the Copa Mexico de Naciones, with the the opening game scheduled for Aug. 2 against China PR in Mexico City.

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What do you make of the U-17’s performance in Denmark? Should the results be overlooked due to the split squad?

Joe, we think we know what the “A” stands for….where were your comments about this coaching staff when the U17s won 3 international championships in the past year, including over Brazil (Nike) and Turkey (Aegean Cup in Turkey). It must be easy to blow in the wind. Go USA

What ? You put one of the least technical players to play for the US (an only played cause of his connection to the Arena tree, which needs to be chainsawed down) an put him in charge of our young players who need technical development and then they bomb?
Who could have seen this coming? Oh yea anyone

The technical playing abilities of the manager/coach have nothing to do with how they coach. Do you think his lack of smooth first touch or dribbling abilities will magically transfer to the players? What matters is how good he is at evaluating talent, understanding and adjusting tactics, managing players emotionally/psychologically, organizing effective training sessions, and communicating with his staff.

He took a lot of previously unseen players. I guess you didn’t read the article either. It is a half strength squad. Half the team that is there normally wouldn’t be there. Isn’t that developing players??

Seriously yo. Everyone just put their soccer balls on ice for a moment ;). This team is composed of mainly non-brandenton guys who have played little together. A few are a year younger. They were playing against very solid European u17 squads. When the real tourney starts in Mexico in a few days, PULISIC, DE LA TORRE, haji, gallardo, calvillo, barbir, velela, zendejas, perez will be trucking.

The last article listed a long litany of U17 victories, and had Willaims quoted as wanting his teams to win. Suddenly, everyone hated him for making results matter more than anything, and not developing his players. Now he goes to play with a lesser squad, doesn’t win, and now he MUST GO.

And what I wrote in the last section: It’s not the job of the US national teams to develop players. That’s the job of the PDL and other academies. These camps are about bringing together talented players to play, gel, and win. It’s ridiculous to think that Williams should be developing players when they get together for brief periods to compete in tournaments. Not his job.

You are making a good point that the bulk of the player development occurs at the club level. But it does not mean that the youth national teams do not play an important role in developing players. The German federation, for example, has all their youth teams play a particular style of play, which IS a part of player development. Spain and Holland do the same. By the time they reach the senior team level, they have mastered the style of play and their role. In contrast, if a youth team plays a style that is similar to what Williams played as a player, no development occurs. It is absolutely William’s job to develop these players tactically to play in a particular style that the national team strives to play. They won’t learn it at the clubs, because their clubs play different styles.

I did not see their blowout loss to Norway, but in their 1-0 win by their A team against Croatia they played some pretty ugly soccer with primary reliance on size and athleticism. There was very little creativity/skill/tactical savvy. Rather they mostly tried to whip crosses in and win the headers. Not that different from what you see at many college games.

It shows once again that those European countries have a better program for preparing young soccer players. The coaching could be better, too. I don’t know much about the individual US players. But maybe they need to be chosen by people who are truly knowledgeable about soccer talent. It does not go that wealthy parents pay somebody to include second rate youngsters.

My biggest concern would be that we supposably have the best 36 players in this country at the residency program, and it consists of all these players you guys are calling the “B” team. I’m quite sure that if the scouting is done properly like other countries there wouldn’t be such a drop off in talent from the “A” team to the “B” team. Let’s look closely at all the good talent that we have in this country and not just pick players because of who they know or who is pushing them through the system.